I was desperate for "Order of the Phoenix" by the time it came out, and I wasn't the only one. In the three years it took J.K. Rowling to pen her fifth and longest installment, Warner Brothers had popped out the first two films. Pottermania exploded to depths neither Rowling nor her original fans could have imagined.
In those same three years, my parents had moved us from our childhood home in Chicago to Washington, D.C., right on the brink of Sept. 11, anthrax and the Beltway sniper attacks. We spent two years in the nation's capital before my mother finished up her stint at the National Science Foundation and got a job in Missouri.
The first year in D.C. was not kind to me. If I had been shy and awkward originally, being thrust into a new elementary school crippled me socially. I didn't even make friends until our second year, and, just as I did, it was time to move again.
My dad packed up our minivan and drove it off with my brothers, leaving my mother and me behind for my sixth grade graduation. I hadn't wanted to miss it. I sat through the ceremony, glad to be there, but as we were leaving, I could hear all of my classmates discussing which middle school they were going to next year, what they would be doing all summer, how they were going to stay friends forever. I cried in the car, and my mother — bless her — said nothing because there was nothing to say.
We went to her office to pack her things. I played on an extra computer and listened to the radio as I always did when we were there. I thought about the fact that "Phoenix" was coming out the next day and Mom had agreed to go with me to buy it before we boarded our plane. I tried to let that excitement fill me until it swallowed me whole as it had with the last book.
But I couldn't quite get there. I thought about the plane ticket with my name on it stashed in my mother's bag, and I wouldn't let Harry solve my problems like he did when I was seven. It had been so easy to escape to Hogwarts when I had first discovered it, but my problems were more complex now. They seemed too big for Harry.
"…It looks like everyone is down here at Barnes and Noble waiting for the next Harry Potter book to be out at midnight!" the radio buzzed. "It's a party with costumes, food, and games. You don't want to miss this…"
I turned to stare at the radio. You could get the book at midnight?!
I gave my mother a sideways look as she packed up her office. She hadn't noticed the radio announcement.
"Mom?" I said in my most pitiful voice.
"Yes?" she answered distractedly, thumbing through files. When I didn't say anything she looked up, saw my sad, little face and softened.
"What? What are you about to ask me?"
"Can we got get Harry Potter Five at midnight?"
She gave me a hard look, no doubt sizing up how many points this would win her and if that meant fewer tears on the plane tomorrow.
"I'll think about it."
See Part Two in tomorrow's paper.
Contact Lauren Chval at lchval@nd.edu
